Macworld May 2017

Night Shift was first introduced in iOS 9.3. It’s a setting that adjusts your display’s colors when it’s nighttime. When the sun sets, your Mac’s display will use less blue light, creating a picture that’s “warmer.” You’ll notice a yellowish cast on the screen. Night Shift is the major new feature in macOS Sierra 10.12.4. Let’s take a look at what Night Shift does, and how you can adjust it to best suit your Mac habits. Apple says many studies show that the blue light usually used by displays can affect your circadian rhythms and your sleep pattern. When you use Night Shift, the warmer colors aren’t as harsh on your eyes and better for your circadian rhythms. Whether this holds true for you or not, you now have the option…

Pros have been dissatisfied with Apple of late, and it’s not hard to see why. The so-long-in-thetooth- it-qualifies-as-a-fang Mac Pro hasn’t been updated in more than three years, but still commands a hefty price tag. And last fall’s new MacBook Pro added the splashy new Touch Bar while seeming to skimp on practicalities like RAM and processor power. But all may not be lost! During the recent Apple shareholder meeting, CEO Tim Cook had this cryptic answer to a question about the pro market: “Don’t think something we’ve done or something that we’re doing that isn’t visible yet is a signal that our priorities are elsewhere.” (Or, if I may paraphrase: “Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.”) In case that wasn’t clear, he also answered more directly, saying, “You will…

The Nintendo Switch hit stores last recently, and the gaming world is buzzing about the convertible handheld/home console hybrid—and top launch title, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. While you may never get the chance to play the new Zelda on your computer, there is a surprising connection here: the Joy-Con controllers can pair with your Mac. That’s right: the little control nubs that bookend either side of the Switch’s screen detach from the unit, and since they pair via Bluetooth, you can use them with Mac games. We certainly wouldn’t recommend buying a Switch solely to use the Joy-Cons on your Mac, but if you game across multiple devices and snagged the console, then Mac compatibility is a sweet perk. And the Switch’s beefier Pro Controller works with…

Living on the road, like I do, isn’t for everyone. It requires a lot of sacrifices and the willingness to accept near-constant change. When my partner and I moved into our RV, it was easy to rid ourselves of unneeded clothing and furniture, but we couldn’t leave behind the computer gear we need to do our jobs. And suddenly I was on the market for a really small printer. After using the Canon Pixma iP110 portable inkjet printer for a few months, I feel comfortable recommending it to anyone who needs a portable printer. It doesn’t have a scanner, which is fine since I can use my iPhone camera and apps like Scanner Pro, but it’s more than capable of handling the documents, photos, and envelopes I need to print from…

I’m not a fan of Apple keyboards. There’s nothing wrong with them technically. I just don’t like the way they feel. But I put up with them and over time, my dislike for them has lessened. For the past few weeks, I’ve (mostly) ditched the Apple keyboard for the new Lofree Mechanical Keyboard. What I found is that my frequent use of the Apple keyboard influenced my experience with the Lofree to mixed results. A DIFFERENT FEEL The Lofree keyboard is being marketed as being “inspired by typewriters.” Instead of square keys (like those found on Apple and other keyboards), the Lofree’s keys are round, like those you’d find on a typewriter. The round keys are also slightly concave, not flat like the Apple keyboard keys, so your fingertips nestle in nicely. The…

There have never been so many options to clone, back up, and archive data from your Mac. And there have never been so few options for local networked backup. With Apple’s Time Machine and Time Capsule eating the heart out of the basic backup market for connected and networked archives, and several competing cloud-hosted services owning flat-rate unlimited storage, it’s hard for any developer to compete. Code42’s CrashPlan and Econ Technologies’ ChronoSync are players in the game. CrashPlan offers a single software client that can copy data to a connected volume, a LAN-hosted volume, a friend’s Internet-reachable drive, or its own for-fee cloud service that has an unlimited storage option. ChronoSync is a ridiculously full-featured clone, mirror, and sync package that works with local and network-mounted drives, including Network Attached Storage…